ST. PAUL, MINN. — The confetti has been swept away. The bunting is boxed up. And John McCain and Barack Obama are hitting the campaign trail with gusto.

But as the two candidates and their running mates crisscross the country in search of the ever-elusive swing voter, the competing campaigns have mapped out very different paths to the presidency.

For the Democrats, the key to winning the White House is connecting with middle-class Americans who are struggling with rapidly escalating costs and global economic competition.

For the Republicans, the road to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. runs through Main Street, USA. McCain, Vietnam vet and Washington maverick, must convince economically stressed Middle America that he has the personal profile — tough, tested, honest, patriotic — that will make them safer and more prosperous.

Forget any 10-point economic plan. With the Arizona senator, it's all about the man. As McCain's campaign manager told the Washington Post last week, "This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

Obama, derided as a celebrity by Republicans, is focusing on issues.

Both candidates face significant obstacles on their general election paths. McCain must overcome widespread disapproval of President Bush, an overwhelming belief that the nation under Bush is on the wrong track and a deep desire for change.

Foreign and domestic

The Illinois senator faces questions about his executive experience, his liberal voting record and the potential impact of racism in November, given the history-making nature of his candidacy as the first candidate of African ancestry to win a major party nomination.

"McCain cannot win on a standard 'we can do better than the other guys' line because Bush has trashed the Republican label," said Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson. "He has to run on character, touting his own and reducing Obama's to rubble."

Polls taken during the Republican convention show a tight race, with Obama leading on issues and McCain ahead on personal characteristics. The Democrat clearly has an edge with middle-class Americans: 60 percent of voters told the CBS/New York Times poll that Obama understood their needs and problems, compared with just 44 percent for McCain. On the flip side, voters by 46 percent to 24 percent said that McCain was better prepared to be commander-in-chief.

With a strong edge on most domestic issues, Obama's team will work hard to make the economy the top issue and convince voters that only he has the solutions to help them.

"They have not offered a single concrete idea on how they would make the lives of middle-class people better," Obama said Thursday at a campaign appearance in the Philadelphia suburb of Landsdowne.

The Democrats' strategy is to target suburban areas in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Virginia where the swing voters tend to be socially liberal. He will focus on independent women, who are evenly divided between the candidates.

Obama "needs to own the economic issue," said University of Texas government professor Bruce Buchanan. "And the way he needs to own it is by repeating the policy positions he spelled out in his convention address, really hammer on that."

Harris County Republican chairman Jared Woodfill says married women are the key — "the soccer moms, hockey moms who are listening to the candidates' positions on all issues."

GOP survey researcher Frank Luntz is even more specific. "The swing vote in America," he says, "is women between the ages of 40 and 59."

Obama — who is trailing across the South, including Texas — will try to make a breakthrough in the West by winning several states captured by Bush in 2004. Polls show Obama leading in New Mexico and competitive in the other historically Republican states.

Getting voters to polls

To win in the West, and to eke out narrow wins in the industrial North, Obama is hoping to expand the electorate by substantially increasing turnout among the young Americans and newly registered voters. He's also counting on record turnouts among African-Americans and expanded participation by Hispanic voters, whose ballots will be crucial in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida.

McCain, on the other hand, hopes to roll up big margins in rural areas of swing states such as Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida. His goal is to attract patriotic, socially conservative blue-collar whites who are hurting economically but are drawn to his message of "Country First."

"He's got to play to his strength," said political science professor Henry Flores, dean of the graduate school at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. "The most powerful thing he's got going for him is his whole experience during the war and his patriotism and all those images."

If the Arizona senator succeeds, he might be able to win at least one of the Rust Belt states carried narrowly by Democrat John Kerry in 2004. His top targets: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Running mate Sarah Palin could be a huge asset in attracting churchgoing, working-class voters. The Alaska governor also is likely to boost turnout among religious conservatives, whose record turnout in 2004 put Bush over the top in the pivotal states of Ohio and Florida.

The Democrats' secret weapon is Obama running mate Joe Biden, the Delaware senator who grew up in a working-class family in Scranton, Pa. Obama's strategists say Biden will campaign extensively in blue-collar areas of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

They also question whether the GOP ticket's conservative cultural appeal can erase voters' fears about the economy and the direction of the country.

"You have to have more than a cultural connection," said Obama senior strategist Robert Gibbs. "You have to have more than simply a personal connection. You also have to have some semblance of an idea of how to get these people back on their feet."

The events of the next two months will determine whether Gibbs is prescient — or spinning.

"The race is advantage Obama, but McCain is close enough that he could win," said SMU's Jillson. "He has to say 'Don't worry about the last eight years, that's water under the bridge. I'm different than Bush, and I believe you should be more confident with me than with Obama as president and commander-in-chief.' "